PayPal™ is a payment/fund processing service. PIPS has established an account with PayPal for the purpose of being able to accept electronic payments for donations or merhcandise on our website. When you use this service, PayPal processes your payment information, whether it is using a credit card or by using your own established PayPal account. With a PayPal account, you can have money deducted electronically from your checking account as well, to pay for online merchandise or services. Some vendors will only accept pre-payment or electonic fund transfers using PayPal. For making a donation or purchasing items from us though, establishing your own PayPal account is optional.
When you use PayPal to make an online donation or purchase from our website, PayPal processes the financial transaction and PIPS is only provided with your contact/shipping information in order to establish your membership or complete the order. We are also notified when the transfer of money is completed, but we do not have access to any of your financial information.
Please be aware of potential scam emails that you may receive. Even if you have never used PayPal you may still get, or have received in the past, emails claiming to be from PayPal, requesting you to verify or update your personal information. This is a common "phishing" scam type solicitation and you may have received similar solicitations claiming to be from most any financial institution. Please be advised that no legitimate financial institution will ever send you an email asking for verification of your personal/financial information, especially emails that have a link that you are asked to click, to be directed to your account where you can update personal information. You should never click on any links in emails such as these. The only way to properly access accounts that you have with any financial service is to open their "homepage" web page and log in to your account that way.
If you receive an email that appears to be a scam or phishing type solicitation, that indicates it is from PayPal, you can forward it to spoof@paypal.com to report it as a scam.